Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Think this chapter will mark 170k of words posted this year by me, according to AO3 stats! Woo! I have quite a bit more written up than that, but fuck it. I'm just happy I've come this far. 1k of words a day for (most) days this year has really paid off.

Also, for those wondering: I changed Anaklusmos' spelling to make it a bit more accurate. I remembered one night that Rick had said the definition of Anaklusmos wasn't entirely accurate, spent like 2 hours tracking down the word it came from, realized the definition was pretty accurate but he'd used the wrong gendered ending for the word, then spent another hour debating if I could live with this knowledge or not. Obviously, I couldn't. (For those of you who are ancient Greek nerds like myself, the word is κλύσμα. It's a third declension noun and can be found in the intermediate LSJ.)

Anyways, hope y'all enjoy, and until next week,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

ἒνδεσμα – Amulet


~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 11: We Blow Up A Bus~


That afternoon, we left camp to officially start the quest.

The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money, and twenty golden drachmas. The coins were the size of Girl Scout cookies and had various images of Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron had told me, but the gods refused to use anything less than pure gold. He also said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions – whatever that meant.

All three of us were also given a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, only to be used in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was the food of the gods, Chiron reminded us, and while it would cure us of almost any ailment or injury, it was also lethal in a high enough dose.

None of us had much else to pack. All I had was an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush, and Katie and Silena didn't have much more than me. Or, at least, not much more that would be feasible to bring with us on the quest, as I had a feeling Silena had a lot more stuff than she was letting on.

The three of us waved goodbye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the oceans, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus.

Chiron was waiting for us in the wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Katie, his name was Argus, as in the original Argus, and he was the camp's head of security since he had eyes all over his body and couldn't be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see the extra eyes on his hands, face, and neck.

"Argus will drive you into the city," Chiron said. "And, err, keep an eye on things."

Argus smiled pleasantly at us.

Idly, I wondered if the reason why he never opened his mouth was because of the eye that was supposedly on his tongue. I hadn't seen it yet.

From behind us, I heard the sound of footsteps.

"Wait!" Luke shouted as I turned around to look at him. He was running up the hill, and surprisingly Ethan, Alabaster, and Chris were all following after him.

Luke had said after Silena had agreed to come on my quest that he'd had something left to do before we left, but I hadn't thought that it involved my possible former friends. Admittedly, I was a little touched at the effort, still pissed off at them as I was.

"Hey," Luke said as he finished walking towards us. "I'm glad I caught you."

My cheeks started to feel like they were on fire.

Next to me, Silena visibly smirked.

"Hey," Alabaster suddenly said, before he, Ethan, and Chris moved past Luke to stand in front of me. All three of them had what seemed to be genuine looks of remorse on their faces. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for – for everything."

"Me too," Ethan agreed.

"Me three," added Chris.

"We've kind of been a bunch of dicks," Alabaster continued. "And you didn't deserve it. I mean, you're still you, regardless of who your dad is."

"Especially regardless of who your dad is," Ethan chimed in. He said it meaningfully, his left eye – or rather, the eye socket, since his eye wasn't there anymore – twitching as he did. I thought that maybe, there was a story there. One for another time.

Chris snorted. "What these two idiots are trying to say is that Alabaster made ἒνδεσμα for you. And Silena, because she's going on the quest with you. But mostly you."

"Aww!" Silena gushed. "Ally, that's so sweet!"

Alabaster scowled at the nickname, but nevertheless fished out two bulky, bronze-colored lockets from his shorts' pockets and handed them to us.

"Thanks," I said.

I couldn't forgive them all just quite yet. I've never been one to keep grudges, but being dumped by them like that still hurt, even if I was already kind of used to it. Thankfully, they seemed to understand. They weren't looking at me expectantly or anything, like they were waiting for me to accept their apology.

"I also have something to give you," Luke cut in.

Silena grinned at his words, before she hooked one arm around Ethan and Chris and grabbed Alabaster with the other and pulled them away from us. I watched them go, then blinked and turned back to Luke to see what he had brought.

"Shoes?" I asked humorously. "Why, you shouldn't have!"

"Shut up," he said with a grin, the pink tinge returning to his cheeks – how had I never noticed it before? "I just thought you could use them. I mean, my dad gave them to me as a gift for my own quest, but seeing as how I haven't been on a quest in ages..."

I looked at the shoes as I took them from his hands. They were sneakers – very normal, looking sneakers. And they smelled normal, too. But I knew that there just had to be something special about them.

"Maia!" Luke said, as if reading my thoughts.

Instantly, white bird wings sprouted out from the heels.

Yep. Special.

I grinned. "Thanks."

I thought about kissing him then. It would've been so easy, to kiss him then. I wouldn't even have to kiss him on the lips, just a kiss on the cheek would've done.

But I didn't.

"We'll talk when we get back?" I asked instead. Hopefully. "Because I will come back. I promise you.

His grin turned softer, but also a tad more strained. "Sure, Percy. Just...stay safe while you're out there, okay? And kill some monsters for me."

I nodded. "I will."

Luke waved goodbye to Silena and Katie, before he, Alabaster, Ethan, and Chris left and walked back towards camp.

I looked at the shoes in my hands, then at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"

Chiron smiled sadly and shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But remember what I said: taking to the air would not be wise for you."

I sighed, disappointed, but stuffed the shoes in my bag anyways. After all, while they might have seemed useless right now, that wasn't to say they wouldn't be useful sometime later.

"Alright, let's go now. Before I change my mind," Silena declared, before she started to march down the hillside that led to the road, where a white SUV was waiting on the shoulder.

Katie followed after her. I didn't. Something in Chiron's expression told me to stay behind.

"I should have trained you better, Percy," he told me, his eyes mournful. "If only I had had more time. Hercules, Jason, Theseus – they all had more training."

"That's okay, Chiron," I said, although inside I was wishing that my dad had given me a cool magical item like Luke's dad did. It would've been the least he could've done, considering –

"That reminds me!" Chiron cried. "Percy, when you fought Mrs. Dodds, you stole that sword from me, yes?"

"Uh...yes?" I replied.

Gods, he wasn't going to make me give it back just when he sent me off on my quest, was he?

"Your father had given me that sword years ago. I kept it, not knowing you were the one I was waiting for, although I had my suspicions when you stole it and it didn't return to me...it's charmed to do that, you see," he admitted. "It does have a long and tragic history, one that we do not need to go into at this point in time. But I will tell you this: its name is Anaklusma."

"Riptide," I translated. "Huh. Well, it fits."

"Quite," he said. "The sword is celestial bronze, like all of the weapons we use at camp. Forced by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, and cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters and any other creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But it's also deadly to demigods, for though it does not harm mortals, you are not fully mortal, Percy. And that makes you twice as vulnerable."

"Good to know."

After that, Chiron and I said our goodbyes to each other, and I walked down to the bottom of the hill. When I looked back, I saw Thalia's tree and Chiron standing there in his centaur form, and I couldn't help but feel like I was walking away from my home. Again.

Because that, I realized with sudden clarity, was what Camp Half-Blood had become to me, ever since I'd made my first step past the boundary protecting its borders.


Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, with Katie and Silena sitting next to me as if we were regular kids. Because after two weeks at camp, the real world had started to seem like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of their parents' car, and every billboard and shopping mall.

In the front seat, Argues smiled at my antics. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.

When we got to Queens, traffic slowed down. And by the time we got into Manhattan, it was sunset and starting to rain.

Argues dropped us off at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my picture on it, along with the words HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY? in gigantic black lettering.

I ripped it down before Katie and Silena could see.

Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets (nobody noticed his eyes – one of the perks of the Mist, or the thing that keeps mortals from seeing monsters and all of the other crazy shit that goes on around them) and then drove away, with the eye on the back of his hand watching us as he pulled out of the parking lot.

It wasn't hard for me to think about how close I was right there to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.

Well. There was probably one thing he was missing.

I resisted the urge to shudder. Even with the news that Anaklusma had been, basically, my dad's gift to me, I was still angry. I didn't want to go on this quest for him. The only reason that I was, besides saving my own skin, was because of my mom. The more I thought about it, the more I was becoming convinced she wasn't actually dead. After all, what better way was there to make someone do your bidding by not only threatening their life, but also their mother's life?

I was a pawn. She was a pawn. I was sure of it.

We got restless waiting for the bus after a little while and decided to play some Hacky Sack with an apple that Katie conjured, which was undoubtedly one of the coolest things I had ever seen. Both she and Silena were unbelievable at it, with the ability to bounce the apple off of their knees, elbows, and shoulders.

I wasn't too bad myself, but I definitely was no match for them.

The game ended when the bus finally came. Katie snatched the apple out of the air with surprising ease and put it into her bag. After that, the three of us got on the bus, and found some seats together at the back of it. We stowed our backpacks.

As the last passengers got on, Katie suddenly clamped her hand onto my knee. "Percy," she said warningly.

I looked up, confused, but quickly saw what she was worried about. An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit which shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.

It was Mrs. Dodds. Sure, she was older and more withered, but I'd recognize that evil face from anywhere.

"Shit," I cursed, causing Silena – who had been looking at herself in one of those small, compact mirrors – to look up. Her face turned to the color of bone. "I thought the ἐνδέσματα were supposed to protect us!"

"They do," Katie replied under her breath. "I don't get why Mrs. Dodds is here, unless..."

Katie's face turned the same shade as Silena's. Abruptly, she pulled her ἒνδεσμα out from underneath her shirt and twisted it around, so that all three of us could see the crack going directly down its middle.

"It must have happened the night before we arrived camp," Katie whispered as she began to tremble. "I was out of it for a day myself, so I didn't notice it. And when I woke up and went back to my own cabin, I put it away without another thought. Μὰ θεούς, Percy, I am so – "

"It's fine," I said, even though it wasn't. It really wasn't.

I took in a deep breath to calm myself.

"Um," Silena interjected, with a tone that bordered on hysteria. "I don't really think you should be saying that, Percy!"

I looked back up at the front of the bus. Two more ladies had walked in, right after Mrs. Dodds: one in a green hat, and the other in a purple one. Otherwise, they looked exactly like her – the same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, and wrinkled velvet dresses.

Triplet demon grandmothers, I thought, and had half the nerve to break out into nervous laughter then and there.

I scrunched myself down into my feet.

All three of the Furies sat down in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle proceeded to cross their legs over the walkway, making an 'X.' It was casual enough, but to the three of us, it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.

The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "Why is she here?" I muttered to Katie and Silena. "I know Annabeth told me during one of our lessons that monsters can reform in Tartarus and whatnot, but I was under the impression it takes a lifetime."

"That's only if you're lucky," Katie whispered back. "Something which children of the eldest gods usually aren't."

I scoffed. "Figures."

"We need a plan," said Silena. "I mean, they're the Furies! The three worst monsters form the Underworld. Maybe we could – maybe we could just slip out the windows?"

Katie shook her head. "They don't open!"

"A back exit, then?"

There wasn't one. And even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.

I looked down at Katie's arms, where her vines were growing again. She was stressed. I was, too.

But then, an idea suddenly occurred to me.

"Katie," I said. "How well can you control your vines? And how fast can you make them grow?"

"I can control them and make them grow as fast as I want them to. Why – " Her eyes widened. "You want me to use them against the Furies, don't you?"

"Uh, yeah? What's the point of having awesome powers if you're not going to use them?" I replied, then turned to look at Silena. "Silena, did you bring any weapons with you? Any kind will work?"

"I brought a dagger," she said weakly. "Percy, what are you – "

She didn't have time to finish her sentence, though, as two different things happened at once.

The first thing was that we hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the lights running down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.

The second was Mrs. Dodds stood up and announced in a flat, obviously rehearsed voice: "I need to use the restroom."

"So do I," one of her sisters said.

"So do I," repeated the other.

They all started coming down the aisle.

"Okay. I got it," I said. "Katie, if you can, grow your vines so that they're covering the aisle."

"On it."

"Silena, you're going to stab Mrs. Dodds first, since you're in the aisle seat," I continued on. "And as for me, well, you'll see."

We were almost all of the way through the Lincoln Tunnel now, and the old ladies were almost upon us. Except, they weren't old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same – I guess those couldn't get any uglier – but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies, complete with bat wings and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.

I stood up then. At once, all three pairs of their eyes were on me, and they began to snarl. "You!" Mrs. Dodds cried. "The thief!"

"I'm not a thief," I shot back with a sneer. "At least, not when it comes to this."

Then I grabbed the empty seat in front of me and jumped over both it and the other empty seat in front of it, so that I was just in front of all three of the Furies. Somehow, I was so fast – or perhaps the move was just so unexpected – all they did was stare at me while I did it.

Great, I thought. That makes this next part so much easier.

As while I had jumped over the seats, I had taken out my pen-sword – Riptide – and uncapped it, so that I was now holding a celestial bronze weapon of death and doom in my hands. The sister in front of me hissed, when she saw it.

I grinned wickedly. "What? Oh, were you expecting me to be weaponless? Well, I'm sorry to burst your bubble."

Then, instead of slashing at her with the sword, I kicked her in the stomach. She fell back into her sister – whether it was because she was surprised or because of Newton's Laws, I wasn't sure – who, in turn, fell back into Mrs. Dodds. With a screech, Mrs. Dodds tripped and fell over Katie's fines, and Silena stabbed her in the chest with her celestial bronze dagger just as she hit the floor.

With another screech, Mrs. Dodds exploded into yellow dust.

Okay. One down, two more to go. How difficult can this be?

I realized not even half of a second later that I shouldn't have thought of that.

"Hey!" the bus driver shouted as he looked at us from the rearview mirror, his eyes wild, distracted. "Kid, what the hell are you doing?"

"Shit!" I cursed, spinning around. "Katie, Silena, I'm going to need you to cover me!"

Behind me, the first of the two remaining Furies stood up. But before she could slash her talons at me, I ran down the aisle, causing the other passengers to scream and shriek in fright, and grabbed for the wheel.

The driver immediately began to fight me. He hit me on the arms and tried to push me away as he screamed something about how I needed to let go or I was going to be in grave trouble.

I refused the urge to snort, knowing that I was going to be in deep shit whether I let go or not.

We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm. Both people and monsters alike were tossed around the bus while cars were plowed aside like bowling pins.

Somehow, the driver found us an exit. We shot off of the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering towards the river.

I had a great idea then to go and hit the emergency brake.

The bus wailed, spun a full circle on wet asphalt, and crashed into a tree. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, followed by the passengers who were yelling and screaming as they stampeded after him. I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.

The Furies – wait, no. The singular Fury that was left, because Silena and Katie must've killed the other one, regained her balance. It was then that i realized she still had her whip in her hand and, what was worse, she was coming after me.

"Perseus Jackson!" she hissed. "You have offended the gods. You shall die."

"Yeah, no! I don't think so!" I shouted back, scrambling to pick up Riptide, which had been thrown down onto the bus' floor during all the commotion.

She ignored me. "Submit now, and you will not suffer eternal torment."

"No thanks!" I repeated, and lunged at her before she could lunge at me.

I performed a move similar to the one I had pulled on the Minotaur, ducking underneath her talons before I slashed my sword at her torso just as I crashed into her.

The Fury screeched as she turned into dust, which I was unfortunate enough to get a mouthful of.

"Gross!" I coughed.

"Percy!" Katie gasped. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I assured her, panting. "But I think maybe we should all get off of the bus."

Thunder shook the bus, almost as if in agreement. The hair rose on the back of my neck.

"We need to get out!" Silena screamed.

Katie and I didn't need any encouragement.

We rushed outside and found the other passengers either wandering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling some variation of, "We're all going to die!"

A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph just before I could recap my sword. I didn't have any time to worry about him, though, because at the same time he did Katie suddenly breathed, "Our bags! Percy, we left our –"

BOOOOM!

The windows of the bus exploded. All of the passengers screamed again as they ducked for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater into the roof.

I had a feeling it was a divine message, telling us that we shouldn't be sticking around.

"Come on," I said, grabbing Silena and Katie by their arms. "We have to get out of here!"

And with that, we plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.


Word Count: 3,870

Next Chapter Title: Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium